


You’d Never Know If You Never Try

by Carrot_Bunny



Series: MakoHaru Festival 2015 [27]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-17 12:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3529658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrot_Bunny/pseuds/Carrot_Bunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Izumi would’ve preferred living with Uncle Ren than this other brother of her mother’s whom she’d never even met before, but after Haru’s anecdotes she’d decided Uncle Makoto wouldn’t be too bad." Written for the Official Makoharu Festival 2015 - it's posted on their Tumblr page now!</p>
            </blockquote>





	You’d Never Know If You Never Try

Izumi walked down the airport terminal in a crowd of people, her eyes scanning her surroundings. She had never seen this uncle of hers, so instead she looked for her name in the throng of signs at the barrier where people waited for whoever they were supposed to pick up. Then she heard someone call her, and she headed towards the end of the walkway where a black-haired man stood apart from the rest, pulling her large suitcase along behind her.

“Are you Izumi?”

“Yes. You’re Uncle Makoto?”

The man smiled. “No, but he sent me to get you. Now come on.”

She hesitated, suddenly wary of him. Growing up in New York had taught her not to trust strangers easily. “How do I know you’re really from my uncle?”

“Pretty sharp, aren’t you?” The man drew a hand into his pocket and pulled out something. “Makoto told me to bring this so you’d recognize me.”

Her eyes widened at the little carving resting in his palm. “Iwatobi-chan?”

“Yeah. I used to carve a lot of these, but Makoto said a stuffed toy would be better for a baby, so I used some old cloth and sewed you a cotton Iwatobi-chan instead.”

A memory surfaced in her mind. “You’re Uncle Haru?” Her mother had mentioned briefly that a family friend had made her favorite doll that she always dragged around with her when she was little, but she’d never been told more about him, so he’d been just another name in a corner of her mind – until now.

Several hours later they were getting off the train station at Iwatobi. He’d spent the entire journey from Tokyo answering her questions about what Uncle Makoto was like, how did they get to know each other, did he know her mother as well, and so on.

“Your mother and her twin brother used to ask me to play with them all the time, and they always tried to stay up late with me and Makoto when I slept over at their house. They would go out like a light before ten though, and then Makoto and I would have to carry them to their beds.”

She laughed. “Uncle Ren never told me that.”

“Well, nobody ever goes around sharing their childhood tales, except once they retire maybe. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Ren in months now.”

“My mom said he’s very busy running his company. That’s why she couldn’t send me to live with him like she planned originally.” Izumi would’ve preferred living with Uncle Ren than this other brother of her mother’s whom she’d never even met before, but after Haru’s anecdotes she’d decided Uncle Makoto wouldn’t be too bad. She was growing quite fond of Haru himself as well.

Now as they walked down a street together she suddenly thought of something. “Uncle Haru, do you live near Uncle Makoto’s place? Because if you do, then I can come visit you!”

“You won’t have to do that; Makoto and I live together.”

“You two are married?” Izumi had noticed the ring on his right hand before, but she’d assumed he had a wife. It explained the tenderness in his voice whenever he mentioned her uncle though. “Mom never told me that.”

“Well, it’s not legal in Japan yet, but really all that we’re missing is the certificate. Ah, there it is.” They had reached the waterfront, and he now pointed to a cafe with a gaily-colored awning and tables out front. “We live right up there, so it’s easy for me to run the business downstairs.”

Izumi did not take her eyes away from the sea to their left as they walked. “You must have a beautiful view of the ocean from your cafe.”

“I know, it’s why we chose to open shop here. We used to walk past here every day on our way to school and back.” They entered the cafe and Haruka nodded his head in response to the employees’ greetings, then helped her carry her luggage up the stairs.

She stopped short at the sight of the living area. “Wow,” she breathed as she took in the delicate seashell wind chimes hanging from the ceiling, adding a bit of otherworldliness to the simple layout of the room. She reached out and gently touched one of the seashells, and it clinked softly against the others. The different colors painted on them gave the seashells a multi-colored glow in the light coming from the window.

“Did you make all these?”

“Just as a hobby in my spare time.” Haruka had taken her luggage into a small bedroom off the hallway that let out of the living area. The first thing she noticed when she joined him there was the large window taking up nearly the whole of one wall.

“I was right, you do have an amazing view of the sea.”

“We thought you’d like it. I’ll leave you to unpack; come out to the living area when you’re done.”

She didn’t move to open her suitcase until after he’d closed the door behind him, then pulled out the drawers in her wardrobe and arranged stacks of folded clothes in them.

Her luggage was mostly clothes, with a few favorite books and trinkets. She hadn’t brought much with her from America; she would be living in a new country, studying in a new school, using a different language. Her mother had called it a fresh start for both of them – her posting abroad provided many career opportunities, and her daughter would be able to come home from school to a house that wasn’t empty, and have a father figure in her life for once. Well, apparently fate decided to make up for that, for now it seemed she would have two of those.

When she returned to the living area, a tall man was already seated at the low table. Green eyes looked up and saw her, and a smile emerged on his face. “Ah, hello Izumi. Are you comfortable with your room?”

“Yes, thank you Uncle Makoto.” His face almost felt familiar by now, thanks to the numerous photos Haruka had shown her on the train, for apparently he had a hobby of snapping pictures with his phone when Makoto wasn’t aware.

“Where’s Uncle Haru?”

“He’s preparing dinner downstairs. We don’t have a kitchen up here because the one in the cafe is enough for our needs.” Just then a call of “Oi, Makoto” sounded from the stairway and he excused himself for a moment.

He soon came back with a tray while Haruka trailed behind him. Izumi stared at the plate set before her. “Mackerel?”

“You’d better get used to it, Haru cooks it every day.”

“If you want to eat anything else though, just tell me.”

“Then I would like - ”

“Not you Makoto, you’re stuck with mackerel.”

“Haru, that’s not fair!”

“Shut up and eat.” Haruka stuffed a piece of fish into Makoto’s mouth, which he accepted with a grin.

Izumi watched all this with curious eyes. “Are you two like this every day?”

“Pretty much. What’s a husband for if not to act like a lovesick fool with?”

“Haru, don’t say it like that.”

“Why, are you embarrassed Uncle Makoto?”

“Not you too, Izumi!”

“Alright alright, I’ll make it up to you. Here Izumi, you have some more too.” Haruka fed Makoto another piece of fish, then put an extra helping on her plate.

As the meal went on, Izumi noticed little details, like how her two uncles interacted with one another, or how she could easily join their conversation without feeling out of place, or how a few seconds never went by without a bout of laughter at something funny someone had said. She’d been apprehensive about living with a relative who was practically a stranger before, but now that worry felt like it was completely unfounded. Even she would’ve never expected she would feel so at home so quickly though.

_Is this what a family feels like?_

She ate another bite of the mackerel, which really didn’t taste half bad. It seemed this new phase of her life was off to a pretty good start.

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I thought I might have been rambling on a bit too much in this fic, but heck it was the first week of exams when I wrote it and I wanted to escape to some fluffy family AU. Exams are over now though, so it's full speed ahead for the last days of the festival! Gambateh minna-san!


End file.
